


Ask You Anything

by Pyrosane



Category: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Power Rangers
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe of an Alternate Universe, Dark, Joseph Kahn Power Rangers, M/M, Power/Rangers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-02
Updated: 2015-03-02
Packaged: 2018-03-15 22:01:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3463619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pyrosane/pseuds/Pyrosane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Situated across the table from Rocky is Adam. Rocky asks Adam to be his. After all, wasn't he Rocky's already?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ask You Anything

Adam is not being held hostage.

This is reassuring coming from Rocky, see, because Rocky is gentle with Adam. Even when he refuses to uncuff Adam from the table, despite the reddening of Adam’s pale skin and the rise of welts on Adam’s wrists, Rocky is gentle.

Adam is not being held hostage but he is Rocky’s latest conquest, defeating any purpose Adam may have had before this very moment, shackled to a table across from a twisted smile. Rocky is a scar and a snarl, a physical reverberation of a boy Adam knew some better part of a decade ago. It’s the harsh lighting, perhaps, but Rocky is ashen and brutal, looking for all like the grime at the bottom of a war-torn city, a crude manifestation of humanity’s collective suffering, etc etc. Poetics aside, Adam is trying very hard to remain calm. Rocky used to be his friend but that was before the Machine Empire, and across from Adam now, Rocky swings a mechanized leg over the other. All Adam sees upon this gesture is that Rocky is no longer even totally human.

“I searched high and low for you, Adam,” Rocky says. His lips are turned up in a half-smile, studying Adam with intrusive curiosity. He looks at Adam expectantly, waiting for a response.

Adam doesn’t say anything. He stays silent and prays that Rocky is not so unforgiving as he has been carrying himself to seem. After all, even when they were a pair of kids with thumbs in their pockets and shoelaces untied, Rocky did all the talking. Adam was never the type to say much.

But this time, Rocky seems disappointed at Adam’s lack of words. He sighs, leaning forward.

“Adam, I did this for you. Look around you. Every man and woman in this building is yours to command. All I ask for in return is that you be mine.”

As if this is a deal-breaker. Adam wonders how Rocky was the one to turn of all of them, the kid with his shirtsleeves rolled up, ready for a fight to defend the helpless, slingshot in hand and a June smile on his face. Rocky was a daytime hero, come to talk Adam’s ears off about his latest feats at the nearby swimming hole, _I beat Keeter the cheater at a race today. He’ll never lay a finger on you again_. So maybe Rocky was right. Adam wouldn’t put it past Rocky to do anything for him, the crazy bastard. Rocky’s sheer madness got him a position at the top of the Machine Empire, and it also got Adam situated across from him. Rocky always had one shoe in the mud and another shoe out, but he always had both hands on Adam’s shoulders like Adam was a fragile thing, like even after Adam became a power ranger, Rocky couldn’t let go. He couldn’t. Rocky circles the table and sits himself down on the table’s edge, the corner of the leg to which Adam is helplessly strapped.

“Adam,” Rocky says. Adam is sick of hearing his name. The syllables don’t fit quite right anymore, coming from Rocky’s mouth. “Adam, you’re not getting out of here. Say something.”

There had been a train track, and on top of that train track had been a trainwreck. It was under such tragic circumstances that Adam and Rocky were forcefully parted, with Rocky shielding Adam and disappearing into the dark, the night murky and sticking to the edges of Adam’s frame like crows to a catastrophe. As it turns out, the Machine Empire is where Rocky had been all along. How quaint.

Rocky runs his hands over his face and the trail leaves his scar looking irritated. Adam makes a motion to reach out for it, to touch it, to make sure that Rocky is okay. How long has that scar been there? But Adam is yanked back by the metal around his hands and upon seeing this, Rocky laughs.

“I’ve had it for a few years, this scar.” Adam looks away. Just as ever, Rocky has an uncanny way of reading Adam’s mind. “That’s what you wanted to know, isn’t it?”

Adam doesn’t dare look up. He shrugs.

“Jesus Christ, Adam.” Rocky slams the table. Adam doesn’t feel panic as he ought to. He feels safe, rather, in the company of Rocky. Rocky’s display of anger, as Adam notices, makes everyone else in the room flinch. They clutch their weapons just a bit tighter at Rocky’s tantrum. The table dents from where Rocky slams into it, over and over. Rocky never once touches Adam.

“Is it so hard? After everything I went through,” Rocky’s voice breaks and Adam understands with abrupt clarity that the most definite change in Rocky is not the newfound hostility. It is not the scar or the transformation from boy to man, but the whirlwind that Rocky has become, an unstable cluster of emotions that Rocky plows through, second by second. Adam feels guilt. It isn’t panic, not quite, but he feels the uneasiness of reality. That is, he understands how difficult being Rocky’s really will be, because there is no other way. He had always been Rocky’s. Only, the reality has become much more sinister since the shift in setting from Angel Grove to the headquarters of the Machine Empire.

“No, it’s not so hard,” Adam manages. He forces himself to look at Rocky and Rocky is taken aback. Rocky swallows and the snarl returns. He composes himself and whatever vulnerability he chose to show is gone at a moment’s notice. Adam continues, “It’s not so hard, Rocky.” Adam smiles. He hopes it looks genuine. He hopes it looks warm. “I’ve missed you, Rocky. I’ll be yours.” There is a lapse in time and Rocky pauses and Adam stops breathing, anticipating the worst. Rocky is unpredictable. The air crowds Adam’s lungs. Adam cannot breathe easy, he can’t, he can’t-

Rocky takes the keys from his pockets and releases Adam. Adam’s hands go straight to nursing his wrists, but Rocky’s go straight to Adam’s lips and it is under such tragic circumstances that Adam and Rocky are forcefully reunited. 

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea where this came from. Actually, yes, I do. I should've been studying but I watched Joseph Kahn's Power/Rangers instead, and how could I resist writing a fic in which manpain ensues? Where the hell was Adam anyway? I had just seen a terribly dark (but very well done) rendition of a favorite TV show from childhood. It was only right that I expanded on Kahn's universe by writing an AU fic on it, because any respectable fandom should have AU of AU fics.


End file.
